Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Finally Sat Down and Listened to LFR1100s +.2

WOW! I have only used the LFR1100s for home theater, until today. Bunch of audio nuts got together and listened to the Harbeth 30.2s, Audio Research Reference separates, Nordost speaker cables and interconnects. Marantz SA-10 disc player, (and 2 x EP500 subs) system. (No vinyl today) Sounds great (and it should, you could buy a nice car for the cost of this system).

[Little back story - I was very happy with my dad's refurbished/recapped Harman Kardon TA5000x - Klipsch Forte - Rotel disc player, upstairs system, until the HK started smoking. No fire extinguisher necessary. Took it to Tom the Tube Guy to fix it. Swapped in the Antique Sound Labs MG SI 15dt integrated tube amp. - Back to the present]

Today, we rolled some tubes in the Antique Sound Labs 5 watt per channel single end triode amp (Holy Grail tubes - Telefunken ECC803s) with a pair of Klipsch Fortes. Better than the GE longplate 12AX7S. Great, but not nearly as great as the Harbeth system.

Everyone was ready to go home, when we decided, let's try out the LFR110s. It's in a home theater system, Marantz 7703 preamp, Integra Research BAT RDA7 monster amplifier, a 2 channel Marantz amp, Oppo UDP 205 disc player, an EP600 and big HSU sub.

Unwrapped and put on "Best Audiophile Voices" (XRCD), listened in 2 channel plus subs. WOW!!! What took me so long?

The soundstage is huge and imaging precise. Big, rich and accurate sound. Everyone LOVED them. What a sweet, accurate, full, yet propulsive sound! Mid range is exceptional. The tweeters received praise from all for the beautiful highs. These are big, complicated speakers which speak with one voice, they are coherent. These are good! REALLY GOOD. Substantially better than the Klipsch/ASL system.

I am so happy!

Ian, what a wonderful speaker you and Andrew have made!!!

Thank you.

Nice! Do you have the v3 or v4?

I don't know Mojo. I took some pix of the labels, says "AXIOM, under that, "LFR1100," under that "Serial ? 4...1004." Speaker wire blocked what came after the first "4."

Do the tweeters have a metal mesh over them or a plastic focusing lens?

Looks like black metal mesh.

Cool! Those are v4. Yes, the highs, mids and lows are outstanding! All drivers were enhanced and so were the cross-overs. Enjoy, Phil.

2x6 - It is a wonderful feeling when your $12,000 system sounds great after auditioning a $40,000 system, isn't it?

The 1100's are quite the speaker, and don't need mega buck amps to drive them. Welcome to the club!

Hey Craig

I do feel guilty when I permit myself to think about how much I spent on that system. I try not to let that get in the way of how much I enjoy the Harbeths. But, the Axiom system has really excellent sound quality and cost a lot less.

The LFR 1100s are a lot more speaker for the money than the Harbeths. The LFRs with rosewood cost about the same as the Harbeth Anniversary 30.2. The Harbeths give you a flexi cabinet, one (almost) 8" driver and one tweeter. You know what you get with the LFRs - a whole lot of speaker.

Sound quality is very subjective, but they are both truly great speakers. The Harbeth system uses tube amp and preamp and mostly vinyl. The Axioms are driven by solid state amps and use a pretty nice solid state preamp/processor sourced by CD/SACD, blu ray ... they sure fill the room with great sound!

I would like to see Axiom make a larger bookshelf with an 8" driver and the new tweeter. If Ian and Andrew could match the sound quality of the Harbeth for a lot less money, that would be a gift to the audio world.

Phil, that is a Bryston mini-T you are talking about. It also has a mid-woofer.

Ahhh!

1 x 8" driver, more coherent, less dependent on the cross-over for good sound.

An 8 inch driver would be prone to beaming. It would totally destroy the Family of Curves. On the other hand, too small a driver has no balls. Four to five inches appears to be a good design compromise. And as you know from your Axioms, when two of the Axiom 5.25" mid-woofers are used, the sound is very dynamic and life-like. Unlike my v2, I now have absolutely nothing but praise for the v4 mids. Although a single mid is great, I can hear the value a second mid adds. Even with just a single, the snap, pop and sheer fidelity of the v4 is addictive.

Harbeth must have cracked the code.

Harbeths with an 8" driver sounds pretty darn good ... as in the best sounding speaker (except for the Wilsons) I've ever heard.

That says a lot! Because they don't have a dedicated mid-range driver, I would not have expected those Harbeths to sound as good as an M5.

Off Axis, the 8 inch driver does "beam" quite a bit - it's about 10 dB less linear in the 2000 Hz range than is the Mini T (Soundstage). If you do most of your listening on axis, this won't be an issue.

The Harbeths share a similar response curve to most Magnepans. It's typified with an 80-120 Hz at higher (6 dB is about the number) output than the rest of the speaker, giving a lush sound. If one does this without odd order harmonic distortions, it's a very seductive sound.

The only downside for music is trying to integrate with a subwoofer. This is a conversation over music and scotch.

I suppose if you listen in the near field, the effect of the beaming is not so bad.

So, I've been listening to the LFR1100s today and enjoying them a lot!

I'm driving them with 2 of the 7 channels of the Integra Research RDA 7. I'm thinking maybe they would like the Conrad Johnson 70 wpc tube amp I have not yet sold. Might just try it out and report back.

Most excellent - and I should add that I am looking at some Maggies now to add to the collection. The Harbeths also are tempting, but with a pair of PS Audio M700's to drive them, the Maggies are probably a better choice.

Probably.

I hear the Maggies throw an excellent soundstage but they have a tiny nutsack, right?

Also those Ohms, as excellent as you say they are in fidelity and soundstage, can't come close to the 1100s in dynamics, right?

If one crosses Ohms at 40 Hz, they can take a clean 1000 watt signal, and will rock the house. Paired with an EP800, they are state of the art - but so are the 1100's.

Until I try the Maggies in house, I can't say they lack "nads," but the 0.7's I listened to in a store played louder than I ever care to listen at home. And that is the $1400 set.

The 1100's, on the other hand, REALLY can go loud. My 1100 system was half the sound system for the live band at the 35th anniversary party. If memory serves, Ian also added a pair of M100's. Macro dynamics in the 1100's is off the chart. It's more than I can take for listening.

And the active 1100s will go to 128dB!! They have scrotal elephantiasis.

Don't do it!

I want to go out in a blazing glory of active LFR SPL with each 'nad firmly planted on a glowing red 1500-5!

Ouch!

That's one way to find out exactly when you run out of headroom.

That's what happens anytime Mojo shows up.

For some fun speaker news, I am going to be getting a pair of the new Magnepan LRS speakers - it's their entry level model - for a review.

You'll need two of these to drive the tiny nuts on those Maggies.

https://www.anthemav.com/products-current/model=m1/page=overview

Craig, are the Maggies better than a Bose 301?

I have a pair of 301's here. Keep it up and I will post a full review.

I gave mine to my neighbor for 12 years. When he moved, I gifted him a pair of KEFs with the condition that he had to bring over the 301s and a couple of beers. I got to hand it to Amar Bose. We sure enjoyed those 301s that night as they crackled, popped and sizzled in my fire pit.

Ah ha, that's funny.

Many years ago, I saw a pair of Bose 301s in a Circuit City 'high end' room. They were beautiful. Smitten, I asked the salesperson to let me hear them sing!

"Is there something wrong with them?" I asked. "No, that's the 301s. They are pretty though."

I ended up getting a pair of Infinity Composition Overture IIIs at a huge discount. That's why Circuit City is gone. The deal they gave me was the straw up the camel's kazoo.

Yup, I did it.

Sorry.

Mine were the series II. Just like my 601s that have found a nice home with one of my fem-friends. Circuit City sounds like Crazy Kelley's or Krazy Kiley's up here from days gone by. I bought my Boses at Krazy Kiley's in Saskatoon in 1990.